From Better Louisiana’s perspective, the 2026 legislative session presents a rare opportunity to do something we don’t often get a chance to do – build on some real successes over the last two years and position our state for a more prosperous future for our citizens.
In 2024 we made major strides by significantly upping our game in economic development. In 2025 we added to that with some of the most ambitious tax reforms we have seen in decades. This year, there is an real opportunity to strengthen and grow our workforce, as well as help the businesses that are recruiting and developing talent.
The billions of dollars in economic development wins Louisiana has recently achieved now exacerbate a problem we have been wrestling with for years – growing our workforce and connecting more people with the high-paying, high-demand jobs that are cropping up across the state.
Over the last several months, Better Louisiana has been involved in several bills that seek to address this situation. This year we are promoting approaches that if successful have the potential to transform our workforce and give an economic lift to thousands of citizens and businesses across the state.
- HB 951: Creates the Louisiana Talent Accelerator, a new office in Louisiana Works with the sole mission of reaching out to businesses to help address their workforce challenges and supply them with the skilled and educated talent they need to thrive.
- HB 680: Builds on a federal waiver request to consolidate 15 local workforce boards into the state’s existing Workforce Investment Council, empowering it to direct resources toward the state’s economic growth priorities by addressing the workforce needs of Louisiana businesses.
- HB 268: Strengthens existing policies to give students exposure to career opportunities while they are in middle school, so they are better prepared to explore pathways to good jobs through high school and beyond.
- SB 383: Renews and improves the state’s $25M workforce training fund for businesses, the Incumbent Worker Training Program (IWTP)
- SB 305: Creates a clearinghouse to help college students connect with career opportunities in Louisiana, providing information about high-demand jobs, the courses they need to get them, and the wages they can earn upon completion.
A resolution, still to come, will create a Louisiana Work-Based Learning Coordination Task Force, to map existing efforts and deliver recommendations for a better-coordinated, statewide work-based learning system.
In a related area, there are also several bills this session dealing with TOPS, TOPS Tech, and the M.J. Foster Promise Program. What they have in common is that they are all tied in some way to our workforce and in developing the talent we need to fuel our economy. What they lack is a coherence that suggests a real vision of how we might use the resources that go into these programs in a strategic way that more effectively addresses our education and training needs.
All together, what these bills share is a goal of reshaping workforce solutions and support in Louisiana. Our hope is that the discussion will encourage lawmakers to think more holistically about these programs and how they might be to stacked and combined to yield a greater return on the significant investment for Louisianans.
Better Louisiana will dig deeper into these issues in the days ahead. But we urge lawmakers to look at this session as the next big step toward modernizing our workforce delivery system, boosting the prosperity of our citizens, growing local businesses, and connecting Louisiana people with Louisiana jobs.